05/28/2026
The Ridge Historic District was officially added to the National Register of Historic Places 50 years ago today, on May 28, 1976. Covering large parts of Beverly and Morgan Park, it was reported to be the largest urban district at the time and is still one of the largest historic districts in the country, with about 3,000 buildings in the boundaries.
Its irregular boundaries stretch nearly 3.5 miles north to south, from 87th Street and the Dan Ryan Woods down to 115th Street. Because the eastern and western boundaries are complex—ranging from 1/2 to 1 mile wide between 1500 West to 2300 West—it is best to refer to a map to view the exact district lines.
The district is one of Chicago’s truly great architectural showcases. Mostly built between 1870 and 1930, it features an incredibly varied mix of architectural styles. These include Italianate, Queen Anne, Shingle Style, Victorian Gothic, Romanesque, and many Revival styles (Colonial, Tudor, French, Spanish, etc).
According to the original nomination prepared by Robert Wagner of Sprague Associates, “Since no particular architectural style preponderates, the resultant mixture produces a pleasant, unregimented aura that emphasizes the wide range of individual ideas that is so much a part of our heritage. Cohesion, diversity and quality are three of the outstanding features of the district.”
Still true today, the original nomination notes, “Its character of substantial residential architecture sensitively integrated into a varied landscape is without parallel [in the City of Chicago] and has survived the years virtually untarnished.” The area is particularly notable for its Prairie School homes, featuring one of the largest extant concentrations of the work of architect Walter Burley Griffin.
The district was established during a significant reawakening for historic preservation in this country. The post-World War II era saw the destruction of considerable amounts of historic built environments in larger American cities. The Housing Act of 1949 accelerated urban renewal by funding the acquisition and clearance of areas designated as ‘blighted,’ which often included older urban neighborhoods and historic building stock. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 funded the construction of the interstate highway system. In many cities, highway routes cut directly through older urban neighborhoods, dividing communities and destroying historic built environments in the process.
A growing backlash to these losses helped galvanize the modern preservation movement. The demolition of New York’s Pennsylvania Station in 1963 became a national symbol of the destruction caused by urban renewal and spurred widespread public interest in historic preservation. In Chicago, similar concern followed the demolition of notable landmarks including the Garrick Theater in 1961 and the Chicago Stock Exchange Building in 1972. In Beverly, local residents worked to save the 91st Street / Beverly Hills Railroad Station from demolition, reflecting a growing awareness of the importance of preserving the community’s architectural heritage.
In the aftermath, the Conference of Mayors published the seminal 1966 report, “With Heritage So Rich”, which laid bare this destruction and outlined what could be done to save the country’s heritage. The report helped build momentum for passage of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (NHPA), the most impactful historic preservation legislation in U.S. history to this day. It established the National Register of Historic Places, State Historic Preservation Offices, and a regulatory framework for historic preservation. Section 106 of the act required federal agencies to consider impacts on historic resources before carrying out, funding, or permitting major projects (Illinois passed a similar act in 1989 applying to state-funded projects).
Following the passage of this legislation, the state conducted the Illinois Historic Structures Survey starting in 1970 to identify historic and architectural resources across all 102 Illinois counties. The preliminary survey report for Beverly Hills and Morgan Park, published in 1972, listed 105 structures and resources (72 in Beverly and 33 in Morgan Park) considered “of special interest because of their aesthetic and/or technological characteristics.”
The Illinois Historic Structures Survey was headquartered in Glessner House, a building that had faced the wrecking ball a few years earlier but was saved by local preservationists. Local resident Dr. Paul E. Sprague was director of the state-wide survey, which continued through 1975.
In 1974, the Beverly Area Planning Association (BAPA) tasked the Ridge Historical Society (RHS) with evaluating how to define a historic district for the area. At the time, a historic district was still a relatively new concept. RHS considered many possibilities, from creating smaller theme-based districts to drawing a massive boundary containing all of Beverly and Morgan Park. As the organization was still in its infancy, they reported back to BAPA that professional help would be needed.
Fortunately, the community had Paul Sprague Associates right in Beverly. The team, which included Paul Sprague, Susan Carr, Robert Wagner, and Thomas Yannul, built on the work from the Illinois State Historic Survey to create the nomination for the Ridge Historic District. While an architectural survey is typically the basis for a nomination, it appears that Sprague Associates performed additional fieldwork for the nomination. About twenty structures and resources appear on the Ridge Historic District nomination that were not part of the earlier state survey.
RHS provided research assistance to support the effort, though the extent is not well-documented. To campaign for its passage, BAPA’s Executive Director G. Phillip Dolan and State Rep. J. Theodore Meyer traveled to Springfield. After gaining state-level approval on January 9, 1976, the Ridge Historic District was officially entered into the National Register of Historic Places on May 28, 1976.
Curious to learn more about the Ridge Historic District? Join us this Friday, 5/29, from 7-9PM for our exhibit opening, featuring photography by Mati Maldre showcasing the Ridge Historic District. Also, keep following the RHS page for more posts about the district during this 50th anniversary year.
The main parts of the Ridge Historic District nomination form can be read at this link
https://web.archive.org/web/20210121012515/http://gis.hpa.state.il.us/pdfs/200713.pdf
The complete nomination is a large file, available here from the National Archives:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/22/8923/28892322/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/76000703.pdf
